[Tex/LaTex] How to include PDF pages without a newpage before the first page

graphicspdfpages

I am using pdfpages which works quite well.

But this time, I want to include a 5 page pdf and the first page should be scaled down a bit such that above the first page is enough space for a subsection (in the LaTeX document).

Using just

\usepackage{pdfpages}
...

\subsection{Interesting Letter}
\includepdf{letter.pdf}

does not work, because includepdf inserts a newpage command before the first page.

I looked at the pdfpages manual but could not find options relating to that.

I hacked this command, which kind of works:

\newcommand{\insertrep}[1]{%
\hspace*{-2.4cm}
\fbox{\includegraphics[page=1,scale=0.8]{#1}}
\includepdf[scale=0.8,pages=2-,frame]{#1}
}

\subsection{Interesting Letter}
\insertrep{letter.pdf}

The subsection is printed on the same page as the first page of the pdf, but an empty page is inserted before the section …

The empty page vanishes if I scale the first page to 0.5 – which is too small …

It seems that \includegraphics inserts an empty page before the graphic, if the inserted graphic violates the margins of the page.

Besides, the hspace value does not always fit.

Thus, my question: How to solve this right?

Best Answer

You can use the pagecommand key:

\includepdf[scale=0.8,pages=1,pagecommand=\subsection{blub}]{testpdf}

You get the empty page when you use \includegraphics because the graphics is too large for the textbody, so latex tries if it fits on the next page (and then complain). pdfpages hides the size of the graphics so it is possible to insert complete pages which overwrites the margins. If you want to insert large graphics with \includegraphics: use eso-pic.